Rachel Riley once denied that she'd host Countdown naked if England won the World Cup

While our heads and our hearts are fully invested in this year's World Cup in Qatar, let's for a moment turn our attention back to the 2018 edition of the tournament.

As we are sorely aware, England didn't win and France took home the trophy, but that's not to say there weren't plenty of memorable moments along the way.

Case in point: Rachel Riley had to deny she'd host Countdown naked if the Three Lions did actually win the cup.

You could only imagine Nick Hewer's reaction if it went ahead.

Twitter

The whole thing kicked off (pun fully intended) when a photo of Riley went viral, showing her in front of a sign that reads: "If England win World Cup, I'll do Countdown naked."

It's safe to say the online community were in a frenzy about the pic, so much so that the maths whizz herself took to Twitter to settle the debate.

In short, it was a joke.

Sharing the offending photo, she wrote: "This is doing the rounds. Of course it’s photoshopped - it was actually @Nick_Hewer who said this."

So it turns out it was Nick all along - the cheeky sod.

Naturally, her rebuttal received as much attention as the original photo, and people on the social media platform had a lot of fun with it.

For example, take a look at historian Greg Jenner's response: "Nick's behind a desk. For all we know, he does every show naked from the waist down!"

Riley then chimed in to dispel the theory, writing: "Mathematician’s logic combined with historian’s scepticism [thumbs up]."

She then joked: "I can confirm he doesn’t. Not since the 'incident' anyway."

Another commenter took the opportunity to bash England's losing streak by saying: "I don't think you would have anything to worry about if it wasn't Photoshop'd to be honest."

"You might as well say it's true. It still won't happen lol," quipped a second.

A third added: "I wouldn’t be too worried anyway."

Twitter

And then there were those who made the obvious Countdown joke, including this person who asked: "Has anyone done the '2 from the top and 1 from the bottom' joke??"

You can always count on the internet for a bit of banter.

As said, even if Riley had promised to host naked, it wouldn't have happened anyway due to England's loss in the Russia World Cup.

The closest she'll get to this level of embarrassment is accidentally spelling rude words on the letter board.

Topics: TV and Film, World Cup, Football, Channel 4

Daisy Phillipson

Daisy graduated from Kingston University with a degree in Magazine Journalism, writing a thesis on the move from print to digital publishing. Continuing this theme, she has written for a range of online publications including Digital Spy and Little White Lies, with a particular passion for TV and film. Contact her on [email protected]

@DaisyWebb77